Highland councillors yesterday approved an application by Canadian timber-processing giant Norbord to increase the height of two of the towers on its Moray Firth site.
The ‘abort stack’ tower will be raised by around 5ft, while the transfer tower will be raised by almost 20ft.
Planners said the height increases will not be noticeable within the wide open landscape around the Morayhill site.
They also said the increase in emissions from the site will be ‘negligible.’
Noise from the site may increase slightly at night, but will remain similar during the day, the planners said.
Norbord is the worlds’ largest producer orientated strand board (OSB)– better known as sterling board – which is used in construction and furniture manufacture as an alternative to plywood.
Changes will also be made within the factory as part of phased growth to accommodate growing demand for OSB.
The operational capacity of the factory is being increased by more than 3m cubic feet annually.
Norbord is investing £125m in refurbishing Morayhill, doubling production and safeguarding the future of 130 workers, and 300 further Highland jobs, mainly in forestry.
The increased production will see an increase in HGV movements to and from the factory from around 340 per day at present to around 378 in 2027.
Councillors yesterday said there was scope for discussions with Norbord about a financial contribution towards the B9090 Clephanton public road improvement project, which transport planners say is a key route for delivering raw timber to the factory.
